The state Democratic Party has said they didn't do any malicious editing of Parker's photo, saying that's just how it came out in black-and-white, but others have disagreed.

Self-described "liberal Democrat" Reverend Jarrett Maupin claimed the state Democratic Party was trying to portray Parker as an "angry black man," and said it reminded him of the same kind of racially motivated things that have targeted President Obama over the years.

"Somebody decided that it would hurt Vernon to make him blacker, that it would stir something in voters if he were made to look like a villainous field-negro cut-out from some Jim Crow-era minstrel-show poster," Maupin says. "These photos are insulting and do not respect the ethnicity of Vernon, President Obama, and all Black Democrats."

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If you showed this in other states with larger, more militant African-American communities - yes this would be considered racist and I am sure that there would already have been some physical fallout already. I think that no matter what race, the facial expression captured indicates looking for approval from someone behind the scenes really pulling the strings and therefore highly offensive because it is a form of character assassination implying that Mr. Parker is not his own man. In Mr. Parker's particular case the implication is of an ignorant StepnFetchIt character wanting to please his massa. Maupin probably jumped on this without even seeing it. This photo clearly implies dumb "N*gga" out of his place seeking massa's reassurance - NOT "angry black man," although with this selection the D-lister machine surely have created some - or at least some voters disengaging from the whole nauseating process.
Sorting fact from spin is a huge problem in becoming truly informed voter. In the interest of clean elections we must demand that the spin stop. This photo selection when there were so many others available is spin. We know the PTB do not wish for us to be truly informed. Candidates in elections do not even function with the same facts. None of this is acceptable and makes our election process all spin & spice with really very little value to the electorate except as entertainment. It is the US population at large that is made the world laughing stock repeatedly by these corporate bobbleheads.
Therefore I urge Parker & Maupin to file charges on attempted character assassination.